Clinical features and subjective/physiological responses to emotional stimuli in the presence of emotion dysregulation in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Emotion dysregulation (ED) has long been recognized in clinical descriptions of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but a renewed interest in ED has advanced research on the overlap between the two entities. Autonomic reactivity (AR) is a neurobiological correlate of emotion regulation; however, the association between ADHD and AR remains unclear. Our aim was to explore the clinical differences, AR, and subjective emotional responses to visual emotional stimuli in ADHD children with and without ED.Method: School-aged ADHD children with (n = 28) and without (n = 20) ED, according to the definition of deficiency in emotional self-regulation (DESR), and healthy controls (n = 22) were interviewed by using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children–Present and Lifetime version (K-SADS-PL) to screen frequent psychopathologies for these ages. All subjects were evaluated with Child Behavior Checklist 6–18 (CBCL), the Strengths and Difficultie...